Kyle Abbott is an upcoming fast bowling talent from South Africa, who plays for Dolphins in their domestic circuit. He hails from the same place where Lance Klusener came from, the Zululand....Full profile

Kyle Abbott is an upcoming fast bowling talent from South Africa, who plays for Dolphins in their domestic circuit. He hails from the same place where Lance Klusener came from, the Zululand. He burst onto the international scene as a replacement for the injured Jacques Kallis in the third Test against Pakistan in February 2013 and immediately made a strong impact by taking seven wickets on debut, which turned out to be the ninth best figures of all-time for a debutant in Test cricket.

According to the former South African bowling coach Vincent Barnes, who now runs a high performance centre in South Africa, Abbott generates good pace and swings the ball with control at high speed, which can be lethal at times. He can hit the ball a long way and is considered to be a useful bat lower down the order.

In 2006-07, Abbott played cricket for the English coastal side called Clevedon Cricket Club and while he was playing there, he caught the eyes of Somerset CCC who gave him a chance to play in their second string squad. In the 2012-13 season, after Klusener took over as the coach of the Dolphins' side, Abbott's form got the much-needed impetus in the longer format of the game and he ended up as the leading wicket-taker of the season with 49 wickets.

Abbott played his second Test after a while, it was against Australia in March 2014 in Cape Town. He bowled a nagging line and length, but only picked up three wickets in the second innings. He also played a T20I against the same opposition but could not make it to the 2014 T20 World Cup squad.

Impressed by his ability to swing the ball and bowl yorkers at the death, the selectors roped him into the squad for the Zimbabwe series in 2014 and he has been part of the squad since then. However, he is not a certainty in the playing XI, with the likes of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander cementing their places.

In 2015 Abbott was bought by the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL8 auction. He was not a regular part of the 2015 World Cup team, however, he performed decently picking up 9 wickets in 4 matches.